So true! But I told my wife the M50 V8 was a "safety feature" for that very reason! Getting on to the HWY here is stupid and being able to get in front of traffic quickly is a plus. Triple digits quickly are fun, but best stop while we're ahead. I put in for the V6, in white.

Oh, other things I will miss:

- comfort access door locks. BMW doors lock automatically as you walk away from the car (if set for such). I don't believe the Defender will do this. I expect I'll forget to lock the doors 50% of the time like I do with our tech-lagging but safe volvos.

-all wheel steering of the BMW's adaptive suspension package. insane turning radius and nice on our mountain roads. But again, this is a truck, so not expected. I believe the LR has great turning radius and I didn't notice anything during test drives.

 

I would stick with the stock Goodyear Wrangler Adventures instead of immediately swapping them out for an all-season. The Adventures aren't an "off-road" tire. They are a slightly more hardcore all-season. On-road, they are excellent. Good dry & wet pavement grip, and very quiet on the highway. Like, no louder than a traditional all-season. Snow performance also was perfectly acceptable. Off-road, they aren't so great. While noticeably better than a standard all-season, they are nowhere near as good as a proper all-terrain like BFG KO3s, Faken Wildpeaks or Goodyear Duratracs.

If you plan on doing anything more than light trails, I'd get a proper all-terrain like the ones I mentioned above.

 

Personally speaking - The P400 has puhhhlenty of getup and go even in comfort mode. I can't imagine it not being enough to merge into traffic on any highway. Up here in the Northeast we have this road through Connecticut - route 15 or Merritt Parkway. It's a 4 lane (2 each way) highway that the posted speed limit is 55. Since its one of the main arteries into NYC, most everyone does 80 - minimum. The kicker is that this highway has no shoulders and *no merge lanes* for most of the entrance ramps. People just have to ... pull out into traffic like it was a country road. I call it the highway of death, and its really the only place I've ever driven where I felt like acceleration really was required in order to survive.

My daily driver is a 9100lbs tank that does 0-60 in about 13 seconds (9 seconds faster than stock!) with a top speed of 70mph (downhill, with a tail wind) and I never have a problem merging onto highways. Then again most people get out of my way.

I believe the "walk away locking" can be enabled via the GAP IID tool but I'd let someone else confirm that as I don't actually have one yet.

 

Thanks. Good to know on the tires. Car won't arrive until March-April, tail end of snow tire season, so I'll stick with them for the summer.

Doubtful we'll make to anything to other than local trails, but some certainly considered more than "light." Taylor Pass/Lake and the Lead King Loop outside of Aspen probably our most frequent with a half-dozen others pretty rocky. We did these on the LR4's stock all seasons with no issues. Of course would have been better with proper tires, it's what I had. That's not to say I'd do it again though. The sales guide knows our trails and our experience, so I'll listen to him for sure.

For winter, I've always swapped out to Nokians.

 

Comfort access is nice, but one thing I noticed that I liked on the 110 during the test drive is that there are physical lock/unlock buttons on the doors. Whenever comfort access decides not to work on my X5, grabbing the handle or touching the little ridges on the door handle can be finicky. Also, it sucks that BMW has now removed the ability to grab/touch ridges on the back doors to open as a cost cutting measure.

I do not have the all wheel steering on my X5 and have not ever driven one that has it. That being said, I was quite surprised at how easy it was to maneuver/park the 110. Is there much difference in the 130? My understanding is the wheelbase is the same. Does the extra length in the back "get in the way" at all?

 

Thanks. I'll look into the GAP tool option if the door locking becomes an issue.

Traffic here is generally slower, but HWY 82 considered one of the most dangerous roads in CO. I know you're not supposed to notice a difference at elevation with turbos, but it still seems you do. We're fortunate to seldom have to drive the interstate other than one or two road trips a year that require a three drive to Denver over several passes. The extra power is always a plus. The V6 should be fine and far better than our XC60.

 

Yeah, I've read that BMW made changes and agree they can be finiky.

I drove the 130 and noticed no difference from the 110. It drove and parked great. The cameras are very helpful. I was really impressed and would have never guessed I was in a 130.

 

*I6, not a V6... not trying to be a smartass, but just letting you know to inform you!

The general rule is an NA engine loses about 3% of its power for every 1000 ft. of elevation. Forced induction engines generally lose about 1.5%-2% for every 1000 ft. However, a turbocharger will have to work harder at a higher altitude to make up for the lack of oxygen, thus requiring the turbocharger to spin faster, which allows the same amount of boost to come in a little later than it would at sea level. You will probably feel a difference, but it isn't as extreme as it is on an NA engine.

 

my 130 X-Dynamic has this as a setting. I’ve disabled it but it’s there.

 

Noted! It's like those in BMW forums calling the 50i a 5.0 15 years after they discontinued it! Haha

We live at 7800 ft. More than enough power, but it always seems like there's "more" when we're lower. I'm sure negligible and all in my head.